Change Management in Marks and Spencer: A Critical Analysis

This report evaluates the impact of changes on Marks and Spencer's organisational operations and strategies. It includes SWOT and PEST analysis, evaluation of key drivers, effects of changes on leadership, team behaviour and individuals, Lewin's change management model, and recommendations for minimising the effects of changes.

Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
PART-1............................................................................................................................................3
Overview of organization............................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis...........................................................................................................................4
PEST Analysis.............................................................................................................................4
Evaluation of key drivers.............................................................................................................5
Effects of changes on Leadership, team behaviour and individuals............................................6
Lewin's change management model............................................................................................7
Critical Evaluation of the long term implications of change.......................................................7
Recommendations for minimising the effects of changes...........................................................8
PART-2............................................................................................................................................8
Application of force field analysis..............................................................................................8
Use of force field analysis............................................................................................................9
Explaining the barriers of change and their influence on decision making and leadership.......10
Explaining accomplishment of change and its successfulness..................................................11
Advantages and disadvantages of leadership approaches to dealing with change....................11
Evaluation of different leadership approaches and models of change management.................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Change management refers to the systematic approach that helps in dealing with the
transformation and transition of the business objectives, processes, goals and technologies (Galli,
2018). With the dynamic environment it has become crucial for every organisation to inculcate
change for success of the business operation. Its purpose is to implement effective strategies for
helping employees to adapt to changes and effective control of the impact of the changes. It
helps companies in making smart choices and helps them in enhancing their productivity while
decreasing the risk. Thus, helps the company in increasing its profitability which will
automatically lead the company towards growth and success.
Marks and Spencer is a British multinational retail company. It was founded in 1884 by
Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. Its headquarter is located in London. It specializes in
selling home products, clothes and food products. It has around 75000 employees working under
the brand. It has over 1400 stores that are located around 40 different countries.
This report shows the ways in which changes impact the organisational operations and
strategies. It also evaluates the different drivers of changes. Also, it evaluates the barrier that
influence the decision making and leadership in an organisation.
MAIN BODY
PART-1
Overview of organization
Marks and Spencer have a journey from the cave to the modern civilized society. That is
from a single retail store into a giant multinational retailer has established deep roots around the
globe over 129 years with approximately 400 stores internationally. Marks and Spencer has a
clear targeted strategy for its growth in the international market. It is continuing in building new
stores in key locations in the priority markets with ownership models like franchising and
ownership (Jayatilleke and Lai, 2018). The operation management strategy of marks and spencer
ensures that all the products offered to the customers are high quality and also the store are
located at convenient place. However, it corporate strategy aims at becoming the world's number
one sustainable retailer. It changes is process regularly so that it can fulfil the needs and
requirements of its customers on time. It has also revamped its store layouts and visual

merchandising. Also, it has been changing its technology processes so that it can become more
technologically advanced that will provide them with a competitive advantage in the dynamic
environment.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis of M&S evaluates the organisation by its strengths, opportunities,
weaknesses, and threats. It is a framework that helps the company in benchmarking its
performances and business with comparing to its competitors.
STRENGHTS:
Here are the strengths of M&S in the analysis:
 It is one of the most experienced and powerful retail company with high recognition
among the target audiences (AlManei and Tsinopoulos, 2018).
 The products of the company are perceived as the value for money due to the wide range
of products being offered.
 It operates in 40 countries with around 1000+ retail stores.
WEAKNESSES:
 Limiting the market share of the company due to the high competition prevailing in the
market.
 Because of its popularity. The brand needs to protect itself from fake imitation goods
available.
OPPORTUNITIES
 Introduction of new market segment which can generate new profit margins.
 Development of their own website for higher sales revenue.
THREATS
 Tough competition affecting the pricing strategies of the company. Thus, affecting the
profits of the company (Matthews and et.al., 2018).
 It is a global company which is being exposed to different political regulation in which it
is operating.
PEST Analysis
PEST analysis helps the company in analysing the market dynamics and enhancing its
business accordingly. It analysis the brand on its tactics by examining the different factors which
include:

POLITICAL FACTORS:
With the effect of Brexit it has affected the company's business operation. That is with
the restriction on free movement of goods and services it has hindered the movement of
companies products across the EU markets. It has resulted in declining the sales of the company
thus. Leading to lower profit margins.
ECONOMIC FACTORS:
It includes the interest rates, inflation rates etc. of the economy. With the rise in the
inflation in the UK economy it has led to lowering the sales of the company due to the low
disposable income available to the citizens of the country (Thakur and Mangla, 2019). However,
the financial crisis have also, resulted in decreasing the demand for high quality products in the
economy.
SOCIAL FACTORS:
It includes the factors like age, demographics, social class of the customers. Marks and
spencer keeping in mind the demographic offers it product to the consumer who like to spice up
their wardrobe with high quality products at affordable prices.
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS:
With the advancement in the technology it is very important for the company to be
technologically advanced so that it can cope up with the market trends and provides its
customers with high quality products at reasonable prices (Al-Raggad and Alsawalhah, 2017).
Evaluation of key drivers
There are various forces that drivers an organisation for change. Every organisation has
different forces that affects the changes being taken place in the organisation (Hayes, 2018). For
growth and success of the company it is very important that the organisation change according to
the dynamic environment. The different types of driving forces are:
Internal forces are the one that drivers the company to change the internal process of the
company. These are one of the most crucial and challenging forces that drives the company. It
includes the change in the human resources management, operating process so that company can
enhance its revenue and profits that will lead the company towards growth. M&S as a fashion
brand needs to change its operating process time to time so that it can fulfil the requirement s of
the dynamic customers. With the change in its internals forces it has helped the company in
enhancing and boosting its performance efficiency and productivity.

On the other hand, external forces can be challenging it includes the factors like
technology, government regulations, competitiveness of markets. It is very important that Marks
and Spencer, uses advanced technologies that will not only help the company in lowering its
production costs but also help the company in increasing its profit margins with maintaining its
quality of products (Akbar and et.al., 2019). Also, M&S is a global company, therefore it has to
face several regulations of the countries in which it operates and has to abide by the regulation so
that the brand image is not hindered. One of the major force that leads the company towards
change is the competition prevailing the market that is the company needs to innovate its
products and services on timely basis so that they can get a competitive advantage and can
enhance their market share.
Effects of changes on Leadership, team behaviour and individuals.
In the era of dynamic environment, there are significant factor that can forcibly change
the processes of the business operations of an organisation. These factors not only affect the
process management of the company but they also have an influence over various other elements
like: Influence on Leadership- Leadership has been defined as the process that influences
group of people in achieving the goals of the organisation. It is very evident that with
changes in the organisation (Cameron and Green, 2019). The leadership style in the
organisation will be affected. That is in these situation it is preferred that the company
uses the transformational leadership style which will help in inspiring and motivating the
employees of the organisation in implementation and innovating changes in the
organisation with achieving the organisational goal with higher productivity. Influence on Individuals- The change management in Marks and Spencer has also
shown effects on the employees of the organisation. That is if the company wants the
changes to be effective it is very important that the company provides its employees with
appropriate training and development (fenthaler, 2020). And also, provide them with
guidance and motivation so that they can implement the change effectively and enhance
their as well as company productivity.
 Influence on team behaviour- Positive behaviour is very important for inculcation of
change management in organisation (Brones and de Senzi Zancul, 2017). That is with the
changes been implemented in the M&S there are chances that it may lead to decreasing

the motivation among the team member and some employees may resist the changes
which can affect the team behaviour, so it is very important that proper leadership is
provided that help to built cooperation and coordination among the employees of the
organisation.
Lewin's change management model.
According to the model of change management, change for an organisation is
complicated journey that involves various stages of transitions before attainment of stability
stage. It is a three stage model which are as follows:
1. Unfreezing- The first and the most crucial stage of the whole process. It involves the
willingness of organisation foster the changes to come out of its comfort zone (Shulga,
2021). It involves making the employees of the organisation aware about the changes
being implemented and motivating them in accepting the new changes being inculcated
for improving their and the organisational efficiency so that M&S can lead towards
growth and success.
2. Change- This is the second stage which involve the actual transition that is where the
actual change take place. It includes the acceptance of the new ways and changes that are
being inculcated in the organisation. It is very important that Marks and Spencer provides
its employees with appropriate training so that the changes implemented can be effective
and can benefit the organisation in a positive way.
3. Refreezing- The third and the final stage of this model is that stage where the
organization achieves equilibrium that is a stage of stability (Domingues and et.al., 2017).
It is the ultimate stage where the changes are being accepted and internalized that helps in
reinforcing and strengthening the changes in the way of working of the employees of the
company. With the proper guidance and leadership it will help Marks and Spencer in
achieving this stage of equilibrium which results in growth of the company by enhancing
their productivity and thus, resulting in increasing their market share.
Critical Evaluation of the long term implications of change
It can be critically evaluated that there can be both positive as well as negative
implication of the changes that effect the company in a long term basis that is with the
inculcation of changes in the organisation (Mobtahej, 2020). it helps Marks and Spencer in
increasing their visibility and productivity that is with advancement in technology it results in

improving the production process. Thus, it affects the company's profit margin with reduction in
production cost.
However, it can be critically evaluated that changes can also have a negative impact on
the organisation (Attah and Isaac, 2017). That is if the changes are not implemented properly in
the company it will hamper the growth of the company. That is M&S will lead low profit
margins and also hinder its market positioning. With the failure of successful implementation of
change it will also result in decreasing the productivity while declining motivation among the
employees of the organisation.
Recommendations for minimising the effects of changes
Changes are very crucial for every organisation that is for successful and smooth running
of a business it is very important that the company is fostering changes according to the dynamic
environmental needs. Also, these changes helps the company in providing them with a
competitive advantages that helps them in strengthening their market positioning. However, it is
recommended to M&S that to minimise the negative impact of the changes it very important that
proper training and development is provided to its employees so that the changes can be
implemented effectively that enhances their productivity. Also, it is recommended that the
company does proper planing and analyses the market appropriately and identifies the potential
risk of those changes so that they can formulates plans that help in minimising the risk and
negative impacts of the changes being implemented in the organisation.
PART-2
Application of force field analysis
Force Field Analysis refers to the analysis of the origin or the root cause that can be used
as a tool for the organization so that it can take relevant actions according to the cause. This type
of analysis is totally based on assumptions about the result of the situation and its current stage
(Ptak-Kaczor and et.al., 2019). The force field analysis can include or does the following things-
 It is helpful in presenting the positive as well as negative situations so that they can be
compared easily.
 It consider all the aspects in order to make the changes according to the situation.
 It reflects the origin of the problem along with its solution.
 It encourages the arrangement of the factors that should be consider on the priority basis.

Mark and Spencer use force field analysis for change management or in order to understand the
change processes. It shows the imbalance between the driving forces and the restraining forces.
Driving forces such as changing market trends, introduction of new technology and new
personnel and on the other hand restraining forces are failure fear of the individual,
organizational idleness, etc (Zhao and et.al., 2021). It includes the following steps-
 Assess the current situation- It is necessary for the M&S to assess the current situation of
the firm that what are the challenges or problems that should be faced by them and also
the reaction of the employees regarding the change strategy.
 Define the objective- After analysing the current situation it is necessary to identify or
recognise the outcomes of the change. M&S have to define the goals on the basis of the
expected results of the change initiative.
 Recognise driving forces- Driving forces refers to the favourable factors of the firm such
as changing industry trends, increasing competition, advancing technology, etc. These
factors support the M&S so that it can achieve the desired goals (Song and et.al., 2020).
 Identify restraining forces- These factors create hurdles in the path of achieving the
defined objectives of M&S and it includes the fear and the negative attitude of the
employees (Das and et.al., 2019). It restrict the driving forces of M&S and create many
problems for them.
 Evaluation- After identifying both the forces it is necessary for the M&S to critically
evaluate these forces by giving them scores through the numerical scale. M&S must
focus on the effects of these forces so that it can be able to decide whether the change is
applicable or not.
 Action plan- M&S must create a quick action plan in order to build up the driving forces
and to reduce the restraining forces.
Use of force field analysis
By using the force field analysis the following recommendation should be made by M&S
so that they can be able to meet the goals and objectives of the organization-
M&S must define its goals properly so that the employees can able to understand the
need of the change and there should be clear and effective communication among the members
of the firm regarding the change initiative (Zheng and et.al., 2019). It must analysis the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and the threats in order to define the objectives of the required change.

M&S must examine the current market situation, new competitors enters in the market, changing
trends and the changing demand as well as the preferences of the customers. This analysis help
M&S to strengthening the driving forces and weakening the restraining forces. It must make new
plans and strategies to achieve growth and success. As the strengths of M&S is its brand value
and a strong customer base so it must put efforts to use the driving forces in order to enhance the
productivity and on the other hand the weaknesses of the M&S is the adjust-ability of the supply
chain of online orders. So, it should try to overcome these problems by reducing the restraining
forces.
Explaining the barriers of change and their influence on decision making and leadership
There are several barriers of change management that create a gap and give negative
effects on the production of M&S and also influenced the decision making process and
leadership (Taylor, 2019). They are as follows-
 Lack of effective communication- Communication plays an important role at the time of
change as it removes the confusion between the members of M&S. So, it is necessary for
M&S to make communication effective and clear and should make strategies to make
communication better. Lack of communication also effect the decision making process as
if the communication is not proper it can leads to make wrong decisions regarding the
change (Ikram, Sroufe and Zhang, 2020). Also, it affect the leadership as it is the
responsibility of the managers or leaders to communicate well with the team members.
 Employee involvement- One of the major barrier of M&S at the time of change is the
lack of employees involvement. The workers of the M&S does not involve themselves
when there is a change in technology as many of them are not familiar with this new and
advanced technology. It creates many problems for M&S such as it affects the decision
regarding adaption of new technology and also creates challenges for the leaders to make
employees understandable about the change. So, M&S must tries to involve the workers
by listening to their opinions and by reducing their fear of change.
 Unknown current state- This is the biggest barrier of M&S so, in order to introduced the
change it is essential for M&S to assess the current stage of the company so that it will
help the M&S to achieve their desired goals (Horváth and Szabó, 2019). If the
organization doesn't know its current situation it also affect the decision to make new
plans and their implementation.

Explaining accomplishment of change and its successfulness
M&S accomplish or achieve the change by making proper plans and strategies regarding
the change management and by putting efforts to enhance or increase its strengths and by
reducing its weaknesses (Gustafsson and et.al., 2021). M&S implement the change by prior
defining the goals before introducing the change in the firm. It gives proper training to the
employees to make them understood about the change technologies and also motivates them to
have a proper, clear and effective communication to reduce the confusion. M&S introduced the
change of adapting the new and advanced technology and successfully transfer the data and the
information of the firm on clouds. Also, use the social media platform for the promotion and the
advertisement of the products (Cardell and et.al., 2021). This technology change is successful for
M&S as they are able to reach and attract more and more customers online that will help the
organization to increase the profitability and productivity of M&S and also leads the company
towards success.
Advantages and disadvantages of leadership approaches to dealing with change
There are several different leadership approaches and their advantages and disadvantages
are as follows-
 Autocratic approach- This type of approach or style is also known as authoritative or
directive style (Roibu, Nica and Hornoiu, 2019). In this all the powers of making decision
regarding the change in M&S is in the hands of leaders or top authority and only the
leaders are responsible for every task.
Advantages- The main advantages of this approach is the fast decision making , suitability and
strong motivation to the managers.
Disadvantages- Employees get exploited by leaders and do not participate in decision making,
employees work as slaves, lack of creativity and freedom of speech, frustration, etc.
Example- At the time of change in M&S only leaders take the decision and explains the work of
employees regarding it.
 Democratic approach- This style involves the active participation of the workers as well
as the managers and also allows the free flow of communication among them (Yilmaz,
Yilmaz and Keser, 2020). According to this approach M&S distributed the powers
between the leaders and the team members.

Advantages- Employees are free to express their views, ideas and suggestions, Increases the
creative thinking, Reduce the resistance to change, etc.
Disadvantages- Delay in taking decisions, confusion among the members that who is
responsible for the wrong decisions regarding the change, maintaining the secrecy of the
information is difficult.
Example- When M&S introduced technology change the leaders assign the duties or
responsibilities to the employees and also make different groups in order to perform the task.
Evaluation of different leadership approaches and models of change management
Evaluation of Lewin's change management model
This model involves three steps that are unfreezing, changing and refreezing.
Unfreezing- It is the initial step of change process in order to aware the people that what is the
current level of acceptance of the change that will creates a hurdle for the M&S (Bans-Akutey,
2020). It includes the proper analysis of the processes, ways of thinking, public and the structure
of the organization so that they can be able to show the workers that the change is important for
the company. Also, it shows that the change is necessary in order to achieve the competitive
advantage in the market. Communication is important at this stage as it facilitates the employees
to be informed about the change and its benefits.
Changing- In this the M&S have to transfer to the new state of being. Or, in simple words
changing is the process where the change can be implemented (Thomas and et.al., 2019). It is the
step where the M&S faces many problems and there is a fear of uncertain situation and it is hard
to overcome. At this stage employees learn many new things such as new behaviours, thinking,
etc. So, the M&S must put efforts in order to make the workers familiar with these changes.
Refreezing- It is the final step in the change process and it includes reinforcing and solidifying
the new state of change. This step is important to ensure that the employees should not go back
their old thinkings so the M&S have to reinforce the works by giving them rewards on the basis
of individual performance as well as the group.
Positive effects- This model can easily understood and implemented by M&S in order to get
positive results of the change initiative (Mukhtar and et.al., 2020). As compared to other models
or methods this model involves less steps and can be implemented in a short period of time. This
model is good for M&S as it uses clear concepts and illustrations.

Negative effects- One of the major disadvantage or the negative effect of this model is on the
employees of M&S as they get worried about the change introduced by the firm. It creates the
felling of insecurity among the members of M&S. The other drawback of this model is its
simplicity in this new era of digitalization.
Evaluation of leadership approaches
There are many different types of leadership approaches or styles such as positive and
negative leadership, autocratic, democratic, free-rein style, employee oriented, production
oriented, transformational approach, etc.
Positive effects- These approaches are helpful in understanding the wants and needs of the
employees as well as they can be able to transfer from one style to another. It boost the
confidence of the employees and improve their critical and analytical thinking of solving the
problems.
Negative effects- The employees who follows autocratic leadership style became stubborn and
works as a slave, resentment of the workers, lack of creativity and the possibility of taking wrong
decisions.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that the change is important for the
organization and how the change process can be implemented. How an organization can do
analysis in order to identify the key drivers of change. However, it can also be concluded that
there are some positive as well as negative impact of change and it also affect the leadership of
the individual or the team. Company put efforts to minimise the impact of change through
effective planning and management. Also, the application of the force field analysis to determine
the opposition and support for the change and use of this analysis to achieve the organizational
goals and objectives. The different types of barriers to change and their influence on decision
making and leadership. The advantages and disadvantage of different leadership approaches and
the models of change management along with their critical evaluation help the organization to
examine the current market situations.

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